Numerous types of beds for immobile patients are known. A drawback all of them have in common is complicated structure and the inability to change a patient's position as frequently as necessity might require it.
Pivoting beds are most frequently used for such patients. Along with the advantage of a slow backward and forward movement of a bed frame ensuring a continuous and gradual change of the patient's position, the cumbersome structure of the frame poses a big problem. Additionally, movable sections of this bed are driven by means of a V-belt which has a tendency to slip and can cause discomfort of the patient.
Another type of bed is a roller-segment-shaped disk provided with depressions in a bed frame. Such a structure is described in a German Patent Document DB GM 8716370.5.
The use of bed sub-structures consisting of one or several segments of a circle to permit pivoting mounting of the bed frame has also already been proposed. Such sub-structures provide, as compared to other designs, the advantage that the bed frame can be integrated and that the design is both practical and easily transportable.